II.

PAPERS

RELATING TO

Che First Settlement at Onondaga,

AND

THE DISCOVERY OF THE SALT SPRINGS AT SALINA.

Anno 1654-8.

VOYAGE OF FATHER SIMON LE MOINE

TO 14Y FUNTRY OF THE IROQUCIS ONONDAGOES, IN JULY, AUGUST AND SEPTEMEER, 1654.

[Relation de la N. France és anrées, 1653 and 1654.]

On the second day of the month of July, the festival of the Visitation of the Most Holy Virgin always friendly to our undertakings, Father LeMoine departed from Quebec on a voyage to the Iroquois Onondagoes. He passed Three Rivers, and from thence by Montreal, where a young man of good courage, and an old habitant, joined him, with much piety. I shall follow the Father's Journal for greater facility.

On the 17th day of July, St. Alexis' day, we left home with this great and holy traveller, and departed for a land unknown On the 18th, following always the course of the River St. Lawrence, we met nothing but breakers and impetuous rapids, all strewed with rocks and shoals.

to us.

The 19th. This river grows wider and forms a lake, agrecable to the view, from eight to ten leagues in length. At night, an army of troublesome musquitoes foreboded the rain which poured down on us the whole of the night. To be in such circumstances without any shelter except the trees, which Nature has produced ever since the creation of the world, is a pastin more innocent and agreeable than could be anticipated.

20th. Nothing but islands, in appearance the most beautiful. which intersect here and there this very quiet river. The land on the north bank appears to us excellent; there is a range of high mountains towards the east, which we called St. Margaret's. 21st. Continuation of the islands. In the evening we break

The naked rocks serve us

our bark canoe; it rains all night. for bed, mattrass and all. Whoever hath God with him reposes quietly every where.

22d. The precipices of water which for a while are no longer navigable oblige us to carry on our shoulders both our baggage and the canoe which carried us. At the other side of the Rapid, I perceived a herd of wild cows which were passing at their ease in great state. Five or six hundred are seen sometimes in these regions in one drove.

es

23d and 24th of the month. Our pilot being hurt, we must remain a prey to the musquitoes, and have patience, often more difficult in regard to the inconveniences which have no intermission neither night nor day, than to behold death before one's eyes.

25th. The river is so very rapid that we are obliged to throw ourselves in the stream to drag our canoe after us, amid the rocks, as a cavalier, dismounting, leads his horse by the bridle. At night we arrive at the entrance of Lake St. Ignatius, in which eels abound in a prodigious quantity.

26th. A high wind with rain forces us to debark, after having made four leagues. A hut is soon built. The neighbouring trees are stript of their bark; this is thrown on poles set in the ground on either side, bringing them together in the form of an arbor; and then our house is built. Ambition finds no entrance into this palace. It failed not to be as agreeable to us as if the roof was all covered with gold.

27th. We coasted along the shores of the lake; they are rocks on one side and the other, of an immense height, now frightful, now pleasing to the sight. It is wonderful how large trees can find root among so many rocks.

28th. Thunder, lightning and a deluge of rain oblige us to shelter ourselves under our canoe, which being inverted, serves us for a house.

29th and 30th July. A rain storm continues, which arrests us at the entrance of a great lake, called Ontario. We call it the Lake of the Iroquois, because they have their villages on the south side there. The Hurons are on the other shore, farther on